sketchbooks

An ordinary sparrow

| Anna Cull
‘The soul within sings’ sketches – ink on paper, 2012.

Here are a few sparrow sketches for a painting I’m working on at the moment. I plan to enter it in a local art auction/competition which is held annually to promote awareness of chronic pain conditions. This year’s theme is ‘the soul within’.

The brick represents chronic pain (in my case, migraines and RSI/OOS) — enduring, exhausting, crippling pain. The sparrow represents hope of the soul — ordinary, everyday, garden-variety hope. On a good day, the soul within sings.

I may be wrong but I think my last — and only — art competition was when I was a teenager (maybe 13 or 14). It was a chalk drawing (on a sidewalk) of The Wizard of Oz. And I won. The prize was two tickets to see a live version of the musical. Ironically, I couldn’t use the tickets because of a monster migraine which hospitalised me.

Funny old thing, life.

Rose and Violet

| Anna Cull
Rose and Violet tattoo design and sketches – final design (right) ink and watercolour on card, 85 x 55 mm, 2012.

My first tattoo design! This is a commission for a mother whose daughters’ middle names are Rose and Violet. I’m really happy with the flowers and the overall design, including the heart-shaped violet leaf.

As I was sketching, the violet slowly transformed itself (quite inadvertently) into a pansy but I changed it back again for the final design.

Do you remember a time before earthquakes?

| Anna Cull

It’s been two years since the first big earthquake shook Christchurch awake in the middle of the night on September 4th, 2010. Parts of the city are fine (and always have been). Other parts are slowly recovering. Some are still a mess or are now empty — blank canvases waiting for something artistic and wonderful to happen. Or not.

The September earthquake was not the worst (we’ve had a number of more destructive quakes since then) but that’s when it all started. And even though it’s been relatively quiet lately — well, we’ve been here before and we know not to get too comfortable… don’t we?

‘My life is a disaster movie’ (ink on paper) was drawn for a student project about the 2010/2011 earthquakes (previously posted here — about halfway down). The little tornado character represents how confusing and unsettling it is to have the expression ‘solid ground’ removed from your vocabulary.

Various sketchbook entries and illustration ideas for the project.

Thank you

| Anna Cull

To all who have followed (that’s now 50 of you), liked, commented and/or visited this blog — a very big thank you. What began as a way of putting my portfolio online has kind of snowballed. I’m really enjoying being part of the WordPress community. You encourage, inspire and challenge me. So… thank you!!!